Staple protector foe boots and shoes



F. L. MACKENZIE STAPLE PROTEGTbR FOR BOOTS AND SHOES Filed Nov. 11, 1918 Cat Patented Jan. 27, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRED L. MACKENZIE, 0F BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEN JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

Application filed November 11, 1918.

To all whom 2'25 may concern.

Be it known that I, F RED L. MACKENZIE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Beverly, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Staple Protectors for Boots and Shoes, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to protectors for boots and shoes.

Protectors for boots and shoes have commonly comprised plates carrying ridges or scattered projections. Plates of the type referred to are, however, expensive to manu facture and to attach, the cost of attaching being relatively very great since it requires hand operations involving the expenditure of much time and labor. Moreover, such plates have proved to be unsatisfactory as protectors, since one part invariably wears out while the rest of the plate is but little affected, and generally undesirable because of their weight and the collection of foreign substances in and around a plate, especially when the latter is relatively displaced with respect to the shoe sole as, for instance, when the sole is more than ordinarily soft and pliable due to absorption of moisture. Protectors of another class comprise relatively small plates, bars, cleats, inserts and studs. Many of these are expensive to manufacture and require a number of operations to effect their attachment. Among the simplest and most satisfactory of this type of protector are the so-called hob nails. However, because of the relatively heavy heads and short shanks of hob nails, it is a diflicult matter to provide mechanism with which to set these nails properly in the soles of boots and shoes. Frequently some of thenails rest with their heads tilted away from the surface of the sole and they are otherwise improperly driven. To such an extent is this true that hob nails for army shoes are being driven practically entirely by hand.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a staple protector which is inexpen sive to manufacture, most serviceable for the purposes for which it is designed, and which can bemachine driven with the required rapidity and accuracy.

STAPLE PROTECTOR FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

Serial No. 262,107.

It is a further object of the invention to provlde a protector for boots and shoes in the form of a fastening having a relatively large portion thereof serving as a wear-resisting surface andprovided with spurs or prongs constructed to hold the protector effectively in proper position without any clinching of the prongs.

lVith these ends in view the invention contemplates the provision of a protector in staple form, the spurs or prongs of which are not driven through a shoe bottom part to be clinched upon an inner surface thereof but are constructed and arranged to grip the material interposed between the spurs or prongs to hold the protector securely in place after it has been driven home.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and will be pointed out in the claims. it

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a view in perspective of the staple protector of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a. section of relatively heavy wire or other suitable stock from which the staple protector is to be formed;

2 Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of F Fig. 4 is a side view of the staple protector in the first stage of its formation, the blank having been bent into staple form;

Fig. 5 is an end view of the protector at this stage showing the points of the prongs in their offset relation;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the staple protector disclosing the next step of its formation in which the prongs have been compressed and flattened by means operating in a direction in line with the cross bar;

Fig. 7 illustrates the last step in the formation of the staple protector in which dies advancing toward each other in a direction transverse to the length of the cross bar give the final form to the prongs of the protector including the production of retaining ribs and the alining of the prongs with each other;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged sectional view of a prong of the staple protector showing the details of the retaining ribs;

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a portion of the sole of a shoe showing the arrange V tector y the prongs] brought into alinement with which drawings.

ence character 12 ISfBClOVOI cuttingdie 14 and intoposition to be'op'erat'ed upon by ment of the protectors therein, a sectional portion of the same figure showing the proin position; Fig. 10 is a fragmentary view of the dies effect the bending of the stock into staple form; and

Fig. 11 is a plan view of a piece of stock formed with flattened portions and designed for use in a modified method of making the staple protectors.

In the manufacture of a preferred form of staple-protector of my invention, a continuous heavy wire-or other suitable staple stock substantially triangular in cross sec- -tion is selected and fed} through suitable cutting and forming'mechanism of a well known type as illustrated in Fig. 10 of the This: stock designated by referthe inside former 16 and the co-operating outside former 18 as in the ordinary and well-known type of staple forming mechanisms. By this operation a secti'onQO is cutfrom the end of the stock and bent into staple form, Figs. at and 5 illustrating the condition of the staple protector at this stage of its formation. from these figures that the stock has been fed and out in such a way as 'tdprovide a cross bar 22 and prongs 24L eaclr'with a plane inner surface, the cross bar having a more or less sharpened ridge 25 which forms the wear-resisting surface of the COIDPlBtGCl' protector.

Atthis stage of the operations the prongs present each a continuation 26 of this ridge along the upper'portion' thereof and are lat e rallyoffsetwith respect to each other and the cro'ss'bar. As the next step" in the operations, dies' are brought to bear upon the prongs to flatten the ridged portion'of eachprong as shown at 27, 6) and simultaneously therewith provide-an overhanging portion'2S at each end' of the cross bar. Finally dies, portions of which are indicated at 80, operating-inafidireo tion at right angles to the dies last/mentioned, compress the material of each prong to shape the prong in such away as to provide a' convexly shapedouter surface and retaining ribs on each prong. Simultaneously with the production of the final form ofthe prong the prongs themselves are brought into alinement with'each other as clearly indicated in Fig. 7, wherein the dotted lines indicate the prongs in offset relation, the solid lines of Fig. 7 indicating each other. It is to be noted that the prong shown in Figs. 4 and 5 is wedge shaped throughout its length and that the forming dies 30 have produced a pronghaving parallel edges throughoutthe reater' part of 'its length asshown in Fig. l.

Preferably, the retaining ribs have the It will be clear form indicated in Fig. 8 from which it will be seen that each rib 34 has a beveled surface 3 extending in the direction of the point of the prong, a surface 38 extending in a direction parallel with the longitudina l axis of the prong and a surface 40 extending at right angles to said axis and providing a shoulder which will engage the material into which the protector is driven to operate as a retaining surface tending to resist displacement of the protector. As disclosed in Fig. 3, the stock of strip material besides being substantially triangular in cross section has two of its edges adjacent the base portion 42 beveled or undercut as at 4A. This beveling or undercutting of the edge is seen at 4:6 in the finished; protector. Instead of bevelling the edges they may be rounded slightlyand this feature maybe extended to the third edge, at the top ofthe cross bar. The rounding or bevelling of the edges makes less likely the productionof ragged or broken edges during the manufacturing operations.

"ASELIIIOCllfiCZtiZlOIl 1n the method ofuiale ing the staple protector, staple stock may be provided by passing strips or continuous lengths of stock substantially triangular in cross 880131011 through rolls or stamping mechanism which operates to produce flattened portions 52 at regular intervals in the stock asshownin Fig. ll. This formed stock is then passed through the die mechanism which operates to cut the stock into sections the prongs of which are already flattened as indicated in said figure. Subsequent operations comprise the bending of: the section into staple form and the shaping of the prongs by dies in the manner disclosed in Fig. 7. -preparing the stock with flattened portions, the die-mechanisn'i may be simplified As a result of thus by omitting the dies used according to the first method in flattening the upper portion of each prong as at 27 (Fig. 6). 'The methods given above are important as disclosing processes by which protectors in the form of fastenings may be made from-relatively wide and heavy stock to produce a large wear-resisting portion and relatively short but effective holding prongs. After being formed the protectors may be hardened in bulk by any of the well-known processes.

As will be more or less apparent from the foregoing description of the method of lllllh' ing the staple protector, the latter comprises as its important features a cross bar 22 which is substantially triangular in crosssection to present a ridge-like \YQlIT-I'LSlSlZ- ing and anti-slipping surface 25 having curved and beveled oil portions 28st each end of the cross bar and overhanging the prongs 24 which extend in the same direction from the lower surface of the cross bar.

While the cross bar is preferably made substantially triangular in cross section, a cross bar approximately or substantially semi-circular in cross section would serve as well for the purpose of resisting wear but would not prove as effective to prevent slipping on smooth surfaces.

In the process of making the prongs they were first flattened, as indicated at 27, in Fig. 6, and subsequently shaped by compressing the material of the prongs by dies operating in a direction transverse to the die which caused the flattening operation, this compression of the material of the prongs serving to strengthen the prongs at the junction therewith of the cross bar and to provide a protector in which the maximum part of the material is in the wear-resisting cross bar. In the completed protector the prongs have parallel edges for a great part of their length and the points thereof are in alinement with each other so that the prongs enter the material of the shoe bottom 4C8 and remain in practical alinement throughout the driving operation with the result that the pro-tector is seated much more firmly in the material than if the prongs diverged laterally of each other, as would be the case if they were left in the form shown in Fig. 5. Upon inspection of Fig. 1 it will be observed that each prong has a plane inner surface throughout its length, there being an inclined or cam surface or surfaces on each prong exteriorly related to the interior plane surface of each prong, whereby each prong is provided with a wedge-shape point. As pointed out above, the exterior surface of each prong also carries one or more ribs, there being preferably no ribs on the interior surface of the prong. When the staple protector is driven into the work the prongs are caused to approach each other during the inserting movement by reason of the exterior, inclined or cam surfaces on the wedge points so that the prongs grip the material interposed between them, thus holding the protector firmly set in the sole of the shoe. Because of the resiliency of the material in the staple protector the prongs are under strain or tension in an outward direction relatively to each other and hence the ribs on the exterior surface of the prongs are constantly pressed into the material of the sole, thereby furnishing additional insurance against displacement of the protector from the material in which it is set, By reason of the construction and arrangement of the protector as just described, no clinching of the prongs of the protector is necessary, this being an important feature of the invention.

The protector is retained in the material by two prongs so that it is much more firmly seated than the hob nail which having one prong only is not infrequently loosened and entirely displaced by blows striking in a lateral direction and tending to cause rotation of the head and shank of the nail. hen the head of the hob nail is worn or broken off, the shank portion of a well seated nail can be extracted only with the greatest difficulty because there is no shoulder or enlarge ment of the shank adjacent to the head of the nail which may be seized by an extracting instrument. In the staple protector, however, there is an enlarged head or por tion on the prong just below the plane of the under surface of the cross bar, so that should the cross bar wear through the prong may be readily extracted and a new protector set in proper relation to the other protectors.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A staple protector comprising a wearresisting cross bar and relatively light prongs extending from the cross bar with the points of the prongs arranged in a plane passing centrally through the prongs and cross bar, each prong having a plane inner surface and having further a wedge shaped point the inclined or cam surface of which is located exteriorly to the plane inner surface so that the prongs are forced toward each other during the penetrating movement into the sole and caused to grip the material interposed between them, thus securely setting the fastening without the necessity of clinching the ends of the prongs.

2. A staple protector comprising a wearresisting cross bar and prongs extending from the cross bar each having a plane inner surface throughout its length and having further a wedge-shaped point and a rib formed on the outer surface only of each prong so that the prongs are forced toward each other during the penetrating movement into the sole and caused to grip the material interposed between them, a condition of tension being established in the prongs whereby the latter press the ribs on their outer surfaces constantly against or into the surrounding material, thus securely setting the fastening.

3. A staple protector comprising a wear resist-crossbar and relatively short prongs extending from the cross bar, each prong having a plane inner surface, and having. further a wedge-shaped point the inclined or cam surface of which is located exteriorly to the plane inner surface so that the prongs are forced toward each other during the penetrating movement into the sole of the shoe and caused to grip the ma= terial interposed between them thus securely setting the fastening without the necessity of clinching the ends of the. prongs.

t. A staple protector comprising a cross bar and prongs extending from the cross bar and of a length which is less thant-hethick- V ness. of the sole of theishoe with which the duringthe penetrating movement into the sole andcaused to grip the material interposedbetween themithus securely setting the fastening.

In testimonywvhereofllhave signed my name-t0 this specification.

FRED L; MACKENZIE; 

